Nora Newlands says the late Jack Webster would be immensely proud of how his name has come to symbolize the best in British Columbia journalism.

“He’d be rolling in his grave because he wouldn’t have believed for a minute that it would have carried on for 30 years,” said Newlands, the executive director of the Jack Webster Foundation, which hands out the Jack Webster Awards annually to the province’s top journalists.

“He would not believe that it carried on (with) 1,100 (people) coming out each year to a dinner in his name.”

This Thursday’s awards dinner at the Vancouver Hyatt Regency — which honours the best entries in print, radio, television and online journalism — marks the 30th anniversary of the Websters, which has seen B.C.-based journalists from The Vancouver Sun, Globe and Mail, CBC and other news organizations recognized for everything from hard-hitting investigative reporting to incisive opinion writing.

It also provides fellowships for professional development and student journalism awards.

Webster’s daughter Jenny McKee said her father — who died on March 2, 1999 at age 80 — would have been “extremely proud and extremely surprised” at how the awards celebration has progressed over the years.

She also said her father would probably be a bit disturbed with the state of the news business today.

“I think he’d think there’s an awful lot of opinion in news now and not nearly enough reporting of the facts in a clear and concise manner.

“He thought of himself as a reporter. He had a clear vision of what he was supposed to do, to find out the facts, then check them, to make it accurate, to make it unbiased. And I think he would really be horrified at a lot of the way the news is presented today, the bias that is pretty obvious, I think, particularly in television news but maybe in other things, too.”

Over the years, The Sun had received 65 Websters, compared to 11 for The Province and 10 for the Globe. The CBC (radio and television) had won 63 Websters.

This year’s finalists include 12 from the CBC (radio and television), four from the Globe, two from The Sun and two from Canadian Press.

The past winners’ list of Webster Awards contains a who’s-who of B.C.’s best journalists, from The Sun’s retired dean of business writing, David Baines, to award-winning crime reporter Kim Bolan, to the Globe’s Justine Hunter.

There have been multiple winners, including the Globe’s Gary Mason (who also won while employed by The Sun, and received the 2015 Bruce Hutchison Lifetime Achievement Award) and the Sun’s environment reporter Larry Pynn, who has received eight Webster Awards over the years for solo and team projects, including three awards in 2015.

The awards often reflect the biggest news stories of the day.

In 2015, for example, a team of seven Vancouver Sun reporters won Best Print News Reporting of the Year — for Mount Polley Mine Tailings Dam Collapse.

And Bolan was the winner of the 2001 Best News Print Reporting of the Year — for her reporting on Air India: Charges At Last.

In 2006, a team of four Province reporters — Fabian Dawson, Mike Roberts, Val Fortney and Ted Rhodes — won Best News Print Reporting of the Year — for Abandoned Brides — Canada’s Shame India’s Sorrow.

As one of Western Canada’s best-known reporters, Webster left his mark on B.C. with his hard-hitting reporting style over more than 40 years of print, radio and television journalism.

He retired in 1986.

“The Webster Awards have become the premier journalism awards for British Columbia, and a fitting tribute to the late Jack Webster, a character and broadcaster who built his career on hard news coverage,” noted Pynn.

Meanwhile, Newlands said winners are selected by a panel that includes at least one person with a journalism background and one with wide community experience.

For example, she said, this year’s panel includes former Vancouver police chief Jim Chu, and YWCA Metro Vancouver CEO Janet Austin. The journalism side includes former Toronto Star publisher John Cruikshank (also a former editor-in-chief of The Sun), and another former Sun editor-in-chief, Patricia Graham.

Added Newlands: “Our mandate is to encourage excellence in journalism, and therefore by shining a spotlight on an individual’s works or a team’s work that’s considered above the rest, it’s important as a way to say to the community in general, and journalists and the media, that there is excellence in our province and we need it and we award it. Over the 30 years, a Webster has become the preeminent journalism award in the province. It’s coveted.”

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